Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/517

 io*s. i. MAY as, MM.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

425

'2 Henry VI.,' V. i. 52 (if "horse" is the correct reading), proves nothing ; to my mind one horse is here meant, as with the following word (one) armour. Cf. '2 Henry IV.,' IV. v. 30, and ' TVo Noble Kinsmen,' III. vi. 3. N.B. Schmidt's second class of the word "armour" is a good sample of vacuous profundity.

' 1 Henry VI.,' I. v. 31, though a strong instance, does not seem to me decisive. Cate- gories may fluctuate between plural and singular, especially when "disjunctive."

' Ant.,' III. vii. 7, is enigmatical ; but I see nothing in the context to show that horse is not singular. I suspect a play on words, with allusion to the fact that one horse may "serve" several mares.

In ' Macbeth,' IV. i. 140, "horse " is surely used in the " military " sense (implying the mounts), as in " The king to Oxford sent a troop of horse," " A cornet of horse," &c. Of this use Schmidt quotes sixteen instances from Shakespeare ; I have not examined them.

This specialized use as a collective noun is natural enough (cf. 17 tWos in Greek). It naturally, too, belongs to any collection of the animals that can be viewed as a unit for example, "team of horse" in 'T. G.V.,'IIL i. 265. In ' T. A.,' II. ii. 18, 'Ant.,' III. vi. 45, and ' 3 Henry VI.,' IV. v. 12, this " mili- tary " sense appears ; the second, however, is rather bolder than the others.

To conclude, then, in only two instances at most, of the eleven, do I find even a primd facie case for considering " horse " as a plural.

If we are to purchase smoothness of scansion (by no means one of Shakespeare's fetiches) by reading "horse" in 'Macbeth,' II. iv. 13, I maintain that we should go further, and read

" minion of his race his stall he would

make he eat himself he did so." Or

else we must take " horse " in the " military " sense, and retain the plurals. The omen will then be even more impressive. Of course I do not deny that a singular form (especially with numeral or quantitative adjective pre- fixed) is often used as a " collective," or that Shakespeare may have used it so in some of the passages ; but I may not believe, short of an undoubted instance, that he ever con- sciously used "horse" as a plural form, to indicate several distinct units ; still less can I assent to an emendation introducing such an instance. Rather would I hold it more reasonable to emend all the monosyllabic " plurals " into dissyllabic, where metre allowed. H. K. ST. J. S.

Shakspeare also uses the plural horses, as in the verse of Hotspur :

Hath Butler brought these horses from the sheriff?

And in the line,

And Duncan's horses (a thing most strange and

certain),

the third foot is an anapsest. An additional syllable, making one of the feet an anapaest or a dactyl, is common in the blank verse of Shakspeare and of other great poets : These vi | olent | delights | have vi | olent ends. ' Romeo and Juliet.

Ominous | conjee | tiire on | the whole | success A pill | ar of state | deep on | his front | engraven.

' Paradise Lost.'

Now lies | the earth | all Dan | ae to | the stars. Tennyson's ' Princess.

Hundreds of examples might be given. No alteration of Shakspeare's line in 'Macbeth' is, I think, necessary. E. YARDLEY.

" COMRADE," ' HAMLET,'!, iii. 65. I forward a conjecture of my own, with which I have not elsewhere met, on 'Hamlet,' I. iii. 65, ed. Dowden, in "Arden" Series (I. iii. 64, 65, Globe ed.) :

Do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatch'd unfledg'd comrade, where comrade (cf. for accentuation '1 Hen. IV.' IV. i.) is the reading of the First Folio. Now Q. 1 and others read courage, which is explained somewhat awkwardly as equiva- lent to bravery used in the concrete sense of "a gallant." Bravery itself is common enough in this sense, but with a slightly different connotation from that of courage, not necessarily implying any valorous or manly qualities, but referring in many cases solely to splendour of apparel. Moreover, the 'N.E.D.' gives only two examples of courage used in this concrete sense. I pro- pose, therefore, to read in this line in the Quartos (I do not wish to alter the Folio, for reasons that will appear later) comrdgue. This word is usually accented on the second syllable, and is equivalent in meaning to comrade, as the following passages show : Webster, ' Appius and Virginia,' IV. ii. : 1st Soldier [addressing 2nd Sold.}. Comrdgue, I

fear Appius will doom us to Actseon's death.

Here Dyce notes the occurrence of the word in Hey wood and Brome's 'Lancashire Witches' (1634, sig. K) : "Nay, rest by me^ Good Morglay, my comrdgue and bed-fellow. He mentions that he had noted other instances, which he had then mislaid. This comrdgue, being a comparatively unfamiliar word, was probably corrupted in the Quartos to courage ; and even if we suppose the First Quarto to represent an imperfect copy, taken down by ear, the words courage and